Chapter 18: Serafina's Conquest
The mental signal confirming **Serafina's move** was the only incentive **Valerian** needed.
The quiet professionalism of **Professor Anderson** vanished. Valerian's human disguise shimmered, his thick glasses falling away. His eyes did not flash gold, but ignited with the furious energy of his twin: a cold **black, streaked through with white lightning**. He instantly dropped his disguise, and a bolt of pure, **black electricity** shot out of the auditorium exit, tearing a momentary hole in the air. He didn't say a word, abandoning the lecture mid-sentence, the fear-frozen students his final audience.
He took flight, utilizing the raw **speed and lightning affinity of Charles's fused soul** to propel his vast body through the cosmos. He was a colossal shadow composed of dark mist and lightning, moving with the terrifying speed of **black lightning**. His forces were already gathered and moving; he did not need to return to his central command. His goal was singular: reach the **Milky Way** and stop his sister before she could corrupt the target world with her **"Dark Genesis"** plan.
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### The Volcano Conference
Far away, beneath the surface of the Eastern Continent, in a reinforced conference room carved into the bedrock beneath a dormant volcano, **Serafina** was already in motion.
She sat in a high-backed **golden chair**, mirroring those of the **President and Vice President** of her nation. All three women wore **red leather trench coats**, the uniform of fire and ambition. They were drinking a potent, specialty liquor: a clear liquid distilled from vodka and moonshine, finished with a searing essence drawn directly from the local **lava pools**.
Serafina took a long drink, her eyes fixed on her allies. "Ladies, we are not the same as our brethren. There's a fire that burns within us."
A sudden, intense emotion welled up—the familiar, searing frustration at her father's endless, cold ambition that had kept her caged. Tears threatened to well in her eyes—a weakness she viciously denied—but they were instantly swallowed and distinguished by the internal heat of her resolve.
Serafina stood, her face contorted. She slammed her fist onto the table, and the surrounding space was instantly superheated. The table and the goblets of lava-laced alcohol the two women were drinking immediately vanished into a puff of smoke, consumed by the sheer force of her focused **Fire Magic**. She opened her fist and extended her hand toward the two women.
"Our Father has laid out the path of success," Serafina said, her voice dropping to a fierce, low register. "We witnessed it over the last five million years. It is now our time. No one has to tell us what to do." She looked at the two women fiercely. "**We have to take it!**"
At that moment, the bedrock around them groaned. Every dormant volcano on Serafina's continent violently shook, exploding simultaneously and erupting with colossal **mountains of fire and lava**. The inferno was witnessed by the entire population of Pandora, a spectacular, terrifying signature of her declaration of independence.
She and her strongest, most loyal allies took flight, an armada of colossal Red dragons bound for the magic-less planet. The perfect seed to grow an empire of her own. Their destination: the Milky Way Galaxy
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